Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Wow, a whole year of has gone by! I have been encouraged by your sweet comments you have left and the emails sent sharing how you were blessed by an inspirational article, recipe or craft. Thank you, my readers rock! Our contributors rock! I shared with them last week how they truly inspire me with their recipes, crafts and reflective thoughts. They are so talented and I am so thankful that God crossed our paths.

It’s been a whirlwind year, of meeting wonderful bloggers, contributing on wonderful websites and making some awesome partnerships along the way. I debated about writing and sharing all of my accomplishments, and comparing my stats from the beginning to now with you but really all I want to do is say “I am so thankful for each of you and for regularly stopping by!”

Now thanks for the blogging community: The journey has been long and fun. It was a rocky start as I tried to figure out all the technical stuff (still working on that), working through coveting and being jealous of bigger bloggers, trying to figure out my voice, processing rejection from bigger bloggers…

Honestly, I am thankful for the rejections and snippy comments I received from other bloggers because I don’t think I would appreciate the wonderful bloggers who have crossed my paths recently and have shared their resources, taken the time to answer my questions and share of their blog blessings with me. It has been such a beautiful example to me of what we constantly teach our children: sharing. I am thankful that I had a phase of coveting other bloggers because it taught me how to truly be grateful for every single person that stopped by our place and for every little thing that God blessed me with on our e-zine. I am thankful for the technical challenges because it taught me that I can learn so much more then I can ever imagine. It’s definitely challenged and pushed me beyond what I thought I was capable.

I did finally cross paths with an excepting and loving community group of mom bloggers. We are all so different in age, culture, religious beliefs, parenting style and blog styles but when we need an ear to listen, a helping hand, a share, a tweet, a pin someone always reaches out. I am so thankful for this group of Kid Blogger Network Moms and for all I have learned from them and other bloggers likeOne Artsy Mama, The Hollie Rogue, Mom on Timeout all of these ladies have amazed me. You have been an answer to prayer!

Merry Christmas to you too Mari! It has been so lovely getting to know you this year, participating in the 21 days of gratitude, working with you at Kids Activities Blog and being inspired by your wonderful blog.